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Part 3, Chapter 5: Staying
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dear America, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Citizenship, Belonging, and Identity
Family, Love, and Intimacy
Immigration Politics and Policy
Journalism, Storytelling, and the Power of Truth
Summary
Analysis
Vargas never imagined that he’d end up in a Texas jail cell, surrounded by about 25 young boys. One was crying, and others played with metallic blankets. An agent called Vargas’s name, said that they were going to move him, and shut the door. One of the boys kept saying “miedo.” But Vargas doesn’t speak Spanish. He wished he could tell the boys not to be afraid, and that almost everyone in America is descended from immigrants just like them. He would have explained why U.S. foreign policy led them to migrate from Mexico and Central America, and how this connected to U.S. imperialism in the Philippines. Instead, all he could say was, “No hablo español […] Soy filipino.” He repeated his Filipino nickname to himself: Pepeton. He spent his whole life running away from this name, but he couldn’t anymore.
Vargas’s worst fear was realized: he got caught up in the U.S.’s immigration detention system. While the government treats the boys in his cell harshly, or even cruelly, Vargas clearly sees that they are innocent and harmless. He encourages the reader to ask how their government began treating innocent people fleeing violence and poverty as criminal outsiders. Worst of all, Vargas emphasizes that he and the young boys are really no different from anyone else in the U.S. Almost all Americans also came as immigrants, then assimilated and brought their own cultures to their new home. If the government can treat Vargas and the boys this way just because they have the wrong papers, Vargas implies, then nobody’s rights are truly safe.
Themes
